NorCo Council Opposes Larger, Heavier Trucks

Yesterday, I told you that several Northampton County municipalities have joined forces with a multi-municipal plan. Brien Kocher, the Chair of Bushkill Township's Board of Supervisors, likens it to having a home in a neighborhood. Nobody tells you what to do inside your home, but you have an opportunity to work with your neighbors on goals that are in your mutual interest. He chairs the steering committee of a plan that encompasses the boroughs of Bath, Nazareth, Stockertown, and Tatamy; as well as Bushkill, Lower Nazareth, Moore and Upper Nazareth Townships. On Tuesday, Hanover Township voted to join this neighborhood.

There's a similar multi-municipal comprehensive plan in southwesterm Lehigh County. It includes Alburtis, Emmaus and Macungie Boroughs as well as Lower Milford, Lower Macungie and Upper Milford Townships. This regionalism empowers municipalities to join forces and combat truck traffic, congestion and warehouses. Affected municipalities can assess impact fees based on the adverse effects of a warehouse development, giving them the money needed to keep roads in good repair. And so long as a use is permitted in one municipality, it can be banned in the others. This enables community leaders to steer warehouse development near major highways, where they are more appropriate.

Unfortunately, once you get on that Interstate, you may soon be seeing a different kind of truck. Segments of the transportation industry are pressuring Congress to allow 33-foot doubles and 90,000 lb.gross vehicle weight as part of the next appropriations bill. The argument for these increases, expressed by Americans for Modern Transportation, is that bigger and heavier trucks will result in fewer of them. But Advocates For Highway and Auto Safety dispute this argument, noting that the increased stopping time for these larger trucks will mean more rear-end collisions. to control :

At their July 19 meeting, Northampton County Council unanimously adopted a resolution opposing any increases in the size of trucks. According to the resolution,
* double-trailer trucks have an 11% higher fatal crash rate than single-trailer trucks.
* Heavier and longer trucks will be more difficult.
* Pennsylvania has the second highest number of structurally deficient bridges in the country.
* Increases in the size and weights of trucks would damage the infrastructure in cities, boroughs and townships. They would have to pay for the repairs to roadways, making these wide loads an unfunded mandate.

Prepare For Higher Vehicle Registration Fees

Earlier this year, NorCo Council was poised to increase vehicle registration fees by $5 to help bridge repairs. Though Council President John Cusick called it a "user fee," it came under heavy criticism. In July, the measure failed by a 6-3 vote. An attempt to resurrect this increase in December was tabled without discussion.

Now comes word that we'll be paying more to drive anyway. According to The Patriot News, the state gas tax will soon be going up eight cents per gallon at the beginning of the year, and turnpike tolls will increase six percent. And if the Consumer Price Index goes up in February, so will vehicle registration and driver's license fees. Next year, the state will stop issuing vehicle registration stickers, which means police will have to buy license readers for which we, the public, will pay. Oh yeah, inspection stickers will go up $1.

This money is supposed to be used to fix the state's crumbling roads. But instead, Governor Wolf is diverting the money to fund state police coverage in communities too cheap to pay their own way. These include communities like Lower Macungie and Upper Mount Bethel, whose police coverage is being subsidized by the poor in Allentown and Easton.

Governor Wolf's office claims it has no clue on how to make up the shortfall.

The answer, obviously, is too assess any community that fails to provide for its own police coverage.

The Lehigh Valley Inland Empirre

Blogger's Note: I accidentally deleted this three-part story, and am reloading it. Sorry, but all comments were wiped out.


I. Lehigh Valley Inland Empire, Freight to Double in Ten Years

If you think of the Lehigh Valley as a sleepy countryside, that's about to change. Freight transportation will double in the Lehigh Valley over the next decade. That's what Lehigh Valley Planning Commission (LVPC) Executive Director Becky Bradley told Northampton County Council at their July 21 meeting. It will occur on all levels - rail, roads and air. Accompanying this explosion, there will be more warehouses and traffic. "If they're coming, we have to plan for them," said Bradley.

Noting that manufacturing facilities like Crayola and Olympus now look very much like warehouses, Bradley pointed out that "there's been a change in the way we shop" as online warehouse businesses like Amazon take root in the Lehigh Valley. She said that will only increase once Fed Ex Ground, which started construction in Allen Township last week, is complete. "At full build out, in its third phase, it will be the largest ground facility in the world," she reported. "They are a transportation company. So we obviously need to work with them in order to plan for the transportation system that they need."

Bradley stated that the Fed Ex in Allen Township is already leading to an increasing demand for warehouse and logistics facilities along Route 248 that will "drastically change transportation patterns" in Northampton County.

In addition to Fed Ex, Bradley pointed to a proposed inland port that would expand the current Norfolk Southern rail yard in South Bethlehem, which could soon include a U.S. Customs station for international freight.

Bradley also stated that the "Chrinterchange," a new Route 33 interchange in Palmer Township, will increase freight traffic.

"The Lehigh Valley, all the way down to Harrisburg, actually has better access to markets than the port of Long Beach in California. We really are the new inland empire." The recent Panama Canal expansion is expected to have a major impact along the U.S. eastern seaboard, making inland ports a necessity.

With drastic increases expected on the Lehigh Valley's roads, Congress in December appropriated $458 million for infrastructure projects over the next four years. That's an "unheard of" increase in federal funds for transportation infrastructure, according to Bradley. For the first time, more money will be invested in bridges ($183M) than highways ($131 M). "You lose a bridge, you lose an entire road," reasoned Bradley. Another $144M will be spent for transit.

Mat Benol complained about all the warehouses. "There's gotta' be something that can be done about all these warehouses that keep popping up," he said, adding that many of them are now vacant. Benol commutes to East Brunswick every day, and "I know what the truck traffic is gonna' do. This Fed Ex facility is gonna' kill this area."

"Mat, you can move closer to where you work," noted Ken Kraft.

Bradley acknowledged that increased freight traffic is the biggest transportation issue facing the Lehigh Valley, but added that Pennsylvania is a "right-to-develop" state. She noted that many municipalities have local zoning that permits warehouses, even where it is inappropriate. She agreed that warehouses are often on very short term leases.

Bradley indicated that she is currently working on establishing to truck routes to keep freight off of back roads. She added that there is an agreement in place with Fed Ed under which there will be no truck traffic during peak commuter periods. "We'll see if that happens in implementation," she cautioned.

II. Lehigh Valley Inland Empire, Transportation Trends

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission (LVPC) prepares a Transportation Improvement Program funded by the federal government. It is updated every three years. LVPC Executive Director Becky Bradley notes the following trends:

* Most people commute alone in their own vehicle. Only about nine per cent carpool. Only four per cent work from home. Two per cent use their feet, while another two per cent ride LANTA.

* 89,000 of the people who work in the Lehigh Valley commute in from somewhere else. About 187,000 people both live and work here. About 104,000 people who live in the Lehigh Valley commute to work somewhere else.

* Ninety per cent of the freight is moved by tractor trailer.

* 912 bridges are over 50 years old. 169 are structurally deficient and 199 are functionally obsolete. Six bridges are closed and 98 are posted weight restricted. "We need to make sure we're investing in those bridges on defined schedules so we don't lose them," states Bradley

* The most productive warehouses are next to major arteries. "Keep warehouse and distribution facilities where we have good infrastructure, next to major highways," she recommends. "The worst thing that could happen is to have them on a tar and chip road and the local municipality in two years has to pay for a road that they can't afford."

* There are 4,100 miles of roads in the Lehigh Valley, over which 13.6 million miles are traveled daily, with the highest concentration on Airport Road, where the job density is the greatest.

* Over 3,000 of these roads are owned by local government, but federal law requires that improvements be made to federal and state roads first.

III. Lehigh Valley Inland Empire, Major Road Projects

Most of the road projects are along the spine of Routes 22 and 78. Among the major projects are the following:

* Over $17M will be spent to widen Route 22, between 15th Street (Allentown) and Airport Road, with construction slated for 2019 and 2020.

* $14M will be used to reconstruct State Route 100, between Schantz Road and Tilghman Streets, with the work starting in 2017 and going through 2020.

* 12.8M will be used to resurface SR 309 from Walbert Avenue to Shankweiler Drive, as well as improvements to the Orefield Road intersection to accommodate truck turns.

* $11.3M will fund signalization of the SR 222 and Schantz Rd intersection, as well as the SR 222 and Farmington Road intersections.

*$11M will pay for an upgrade to the SR309 and Tilghman Street interchange.

*$7.2M on the 15th St (Allentown) corridor for new signals between Hamilton and Tilghman Streets to improve pedestrian safety.

* $5M will fund highway improvements for Fed Ex, and include widening Airport Road and intersection improvements at Postal and City Line Roads.

* $4M will fund improvements to the Route 22 and 13th St (Easton) interchange. Bradley said at one point that there is more traffic along Easton's 13th Street than west-bound Route 22.

* $3M will be used for Center Street (Bethlehem) resurfacing, between Fahy and Monocacy Bridges.

* $1.5M will be spent for corridor improvements along Easton Avenue (Bethlehem), between Stefko Boulevard and Willow Park Road.

* $2M will be spent to convert one-way streets in Easton's central business district back into two-way streets in 2017 and 2018. Streets involved are Second, Spring Garden, Fourth and Ferry Streets.

Dent Persuades House To Increase Safety on Amtrak Trains

Congressman Charlie Dent has persuaded the U.S. House to support $9 million in safety enhancements to Amtrak trains. That money will fund inward-facing cameras to assist investigators in the event of a future derailment like the May 12 Amtrak 188 disaster, in which eight people were killed and over 200 injured when the train derailed near Philadelphia.

“In the wake of the tragic accident in Philadelphia, I felt it was important to make this needed safety investment,” said Dent. “The type of information received from these cameras will be an important tool for accident investigators. They can help determine whether or not human error was the cause of a derailment and inform what preventative measures will need to be taken in the future. I am grateful to my colleagues for their support of my amendment and I will continue to work to make certain that Amtrak has the means to ensure passenger safety,” Dent concluded.

Dent’s amendment was adopted on the House floor by voice vote. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, mentioned Rep. Dent’s amendment during his floor remarks as one of the important safety funding measures contained in the Transportation Bill.

Expect a New County Tax Soon

Thanks to the $2.3 billion Transportation Bill adopted by the folks in the land of midnight payraises, counties may impose an annual $5 registration fee on fees, which would be added on to the annual fee collected by PennDOT. This fee is being considered in Luzerne County and has been approved in Cumberland County.

Expect to see thisnew tax on the Lehighand Northampton County agendas soon.